Posts Tagged ‘plateau’

If you were to ask me why I became a trainer, the answer would probably be something along the lines of, “By default.”

I don’t mean that as a bad thing. It’s not even a knock against myself. I’m too young to be a doctor; I’m still working on bigger things. But what I love is training. This is my career for now until something takes its place (if anything ever does). Why? Because I can have everything. Being a great trainer, transcending the ordinary, requires an understanding of all fields of human knowledge. Physics, anatomy, biology, and mathematics are all integral to training. Absolutely necessary. But the great trainers are masters of philosophy, they’re wordsmiths, they’re motivators, and, most importantly, they don’t settle for “good enough.” I love this aspect. Being a trainer is much like the nature of training itself. You are never stagnant, you must always exceed your level. Honestly, I’d rather be doing something that fulfills my craving for excellence than something that pays well but leaves me empty inside. Life is too short to do anything other than what makes it worthwhile.

As an athlete, whatever you do, never accept “good enough.” This is your enemy. Dean Karnazes ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. Bruce Lee could perform one handed, two finger pushups. Men conquer the highest mountain peak every year; they climb so high that, were their oxygen tanks to break, they would surely die minutes into the descent; they climb so high that the curvature of the earth is visible. Your body is capable of truly epic feats.

Knowing how to use it… That’s something different. I did stupid things when I started. Everyone does. Things that don’t make a bit of difference in your workout, things that have the sole effect of tiring you out. It’s only by being fed up with my progress stagnating that I was able to break the plateaus I encountered.

You’ll face sticking points. Everyone does. When you do, go read. Research. Do. When doing one thing gives you an undesirable result, there’s only one option – do something different! Don’t be afraid to try new things (within reason). Look up how to break plateaus. I can promise you that without the drive to learn new techniques, to truly exceed yourself, you will go nowhere.

Bruce Lee once said, “Be water.” It’s my motto. When water encounters an obstacle, it doesn’t push against it, doesn’t get fed up. It simply flows around. Water carves a canyon not through raw strength or anger but through persistence.

Approach your training with the same persistence. Changes will not happen overnight. Rome was not built in a day. Be persistent in your training and when you encounter an obstacle or a sticking point, be water and find a path with which to flow around your plateau.